The Democratic Alliance (DA) has urged the MEC of Social Development, Nontobeko Vilakazi, to urgently increase access to grant-related services in the Northern Cape given the persistent shortage of SASSA pay points and card issuing sites in the province.
This is even more critical given the switch, on Thursday last week, from SASSA Gold Cards to Postbank Black Cards.
By the first week of March, only 25% of grant beneficiaries in the province had completed their card replacements, potentially leaving 41 475 beneficiaries without access to their grants. This is extremely worrying, given that the latest Postbank Black Card Issuing report indicated that only eight out of 19 card issuing outlets have been functional in the province since 5 March.
Access to SASSA service points is a longstanding issue in the rural Northern Cape and was further exacerbated by the closure of many post offices across the province. The DA has been lobbying for the rollout of additional social grant pay points since 2023. While the department has indicated that grant beneficiaries in the province can withdraw grants from ATMs, family grocery stores, tuckshops and retail outlets there are still serious challenges in respect of accessibility and beneficiaries have reported spending close to half of their grant money on traveling to other towns to access their social grants.
The DA is concerned that, without adequate support from the department, transition from the gold card to the black card will add a further burden on rural grant recipients.
We have submitted a letter to Vilakazi to determine the department’s contingency plans to mitigate the effects of delayed card transitioning and to conclude on outstanding card transitions. We also want to know whether roving teams delivered cards to beneficiaries before the deadline, and whether they will continue to be used.
Grant beneficiaries are dependent on their grants for survival and the department must pull out all the stops to ensure that there is affordable and sustainable access to this safety net.